Nevada Stops "Medical Assistants" from Giving Injections

this a difficult situation. As an RN in home care, i am often calling doctor's offices and asking to speak to the nurse re:a patient. I am often put through to an MA. While some are great it makes me uneasy not to be speaking to an RN. It also puts us in in a difficult position as it is not legal for us to take a verbal order from a MA. I do resent the fact that in many offices they are referred to as "the nurse", especially when we all know it is simply the doctor's decision to simply pay less. The sad reality, is that in home care, I don't have the time to force the issue and end up hoping for the best, before moving on to the next patient.

Even if they can give injections well, the question is are their suppose to be doing that under their state guideline? Many of these people that doctor's hire to run their office are not license to do a lot of stuff that they are doing. Just a few months ago I came across a young lady who told me she works in a doctor's office and told me her title is a triage nurse, and how she tell people about their medication over the phone. At first, I was like...cool, but with further questioning, she turned out to not a nurse. I told her she could get in trouble doing that. I haven't spoke to her in a while, but I'm pretty sure she is still doing her thing.

I guess when they end up like that lady in CT, maybe it will hit them. She had criminal charges brought against her for using the "Nurse" title unlawfully and plus, endagering the public charges etc.

ABSOLUTELY!!!! HH agencies have been giving those immunizations using RNs and LPN/LVNs for many years. Focusing on that one task makes it safer, no matter who does it. It's like the reasons behind prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving: multi tasking is asking for trouble.

The only thing promoting the use of MAs for vaccinations, is money, momey, money. Less overhead, more for doc. In fact, teaching patients to give themselves the vaccine would be safer than letting MAs administer it!

There are few situations that get me as angry, as having MAs does. They were a bad repair of scarcity of qualified staff. Doctors' office overhead is far less than it was when R.N.s or LPN/LVNs with far more education and experience staffed them. In 1963, I was the one employee, a R.N., P.H.N. in a Pediatrician's office, and made $400/month there. I counseled parents of newborns, made appointments, answered the telephone, weighed and measured patients and explained and gave treatments/injections, explaining the plan of care to parents. Often we saw 35 patients a day.

Today pediatricians' offices have one employee for each of those functions, but adding their education and experience altogether makes them less adequate for their tasks. Sometimes they goof up begtime, making appointments far later than anyone with an iota of sense would have done. I've had the "scheduler" give me an appointment for investigation of my breast mass, 6 weeks after I found it by palpation!

One not too well meaning MA told me that I had to have my B.P. taken on the examining table, because the equipment was at heart level when I was there. After I told her that I'd had higher readings when I was on the examining table, she charted (despite knowing that I'd been a R.N. for 40 years) that I had "white coat phobia". Then she placed me in an examining room to wait for a regular consultation. The examining table in that room had all kinds of human discharge and excrement on it. I reported her to the manager for leaving a patient in a potentially contaminated room that was dark.

Petty fights about stupid matters are rife in the groups of MAs I've known, at clinics. Most of those in that field have received 3 weeks of education! They usually come from much lower levels of life forms. However, I swear that I didn't speak down to them, explained procedures when that seemed appropriate, without wanting to impress them with my higher level of education. I'm a teacher, and where there's a deficit of knowledge, I see it as my job to fill in the cracks.

My doctor saw her MA (a very bossy type) as someone who could get her out of the office on time. That priority superceded patient needs (and she is a gerentologist). So I've been banned from her office. I can't wait to hear that she's been sued for inadequately diagnosing a patient before rushing home. Whew! I hadn't realized until I read that back, how over the top I am about the injustice!

Well, despite that, I am sure that the tasks assigned these people aren't appropriate, as their level of knowledge is far below the amount needed, for most assignments.

MAY be a difference?

What you know now (I hope), is that anaphylactic shock can occur if someone gets the flu vaccine, and is allergic to eggs, and that an epipen needs to be on site at all times, and how and when to use it. Patients really do need to be told (known allergic or not), to stay where the clinic is, for 20 minutes after their injection, just in case......

Syringes cannot, may not be filled by anyone other than the nurse who uses them to give an injection. MAs just haven't had the experience of looking at the vial, the patient's ID, and then the syringe. Since pneumonia vaccine is given at the same clinics, confusion can occur. When I started working for a HH agency at clinics in supermarkets, etc., nurses (?) were drawing up 20-30 doses into syringes and piling them up on the table, for everyone to use! That's an invitation to break sterility, and if someone opened the wrong vial, the wrong vaccine would be given. You can bet I stopped that in a heartbeat.

When standards are not upheld, and nurses think that giving flu vaccine is a "no brainer", it's time to take a good look at the "brains" responsible. There is an art to finding a muscle in an underweight person and especially in the overweight ones. But do they give you a longer needle for the overweight people? No! Doctors have no idea what mindset and preparation is needed for any nursing procedure, and because they look down on us, they think anyone (especially at lower salaries) can do the work we do.

Nursing associations are very political, and don't take the initiative to investigate real travesties in delivery of care, unless someone holds it in the light, in front of them. Often they'll yield to what the doctor wants, rather than research the reasons for "tried and true" nursing.

Thank you for asking, nyforlove, my breast mass in 1974 (pea size) was malignant, I didn't use the MD with the stupid "scheduler", but went to a surgeon who was in one of my Lamaze classes. I probably should have given the physician an earful, who entrusted patients' lives to someone with less education than a secretary/administrative assistant, but I was younger and more concerned about myself at the time......